A&S scholars sharing their expertise in the media this week

From the origins of St. Patrick’s Day to the growing interest in non-Indigenous students learning Indigenous languages, experts from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts & Science are sharing their expertise on a variety of issues in the media.

Here’s some of what they had to say this week.

March 17, 2023

• Anthony Trindle, a visiting Irish language scholar in the Celtic Studies program at St. Michael’s College, explains in the Toronto Star what St. Patrick’s Day is all about.
• In a CBC News story, School of the Environment and Department of Political Science assistant professor Teresa Kramarz comments on the environmental effects of mining and the rights of First Nations in the Ring of Fire area of northern Ontario.
• Department of Sociology professor Robert Brym comments in the Globe and Mail on the perspectives of Canadian Jews on current political developments in Israel.
• Bence Viola, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, describes in The Sentinel new research offering insights into lifestyles and family dynamics of Neanderthals who lived around 50,000 years ago.

March 18, 2023

• For NPR, John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, comments in a story examining the discovery of spyware on the mobile phones of activists in Mexico, and an investigation by lawmakers into allegations of spying by the military.
• Department of Economics professor emeritus Gustavo Indart writes a Toronto Star op-ed predicting that the Bank of Canada will raise its policy interest rate next month.
• In a New York Times story exploring lingering questions surrounding the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. 20 years ago, Department of Political Science assistant professor Madison Schramm reflects on its political purpose.

March 19, 2023

• Department of Political Science and Asian Institute professor Lynette Ong discusses Canada-China relations for NPR following allegations of interference by China in Canadian elections.

March 20, 2023

• A CBC News story examining the latest global climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) includes comment from Department of Geography & Planning professor Danny Harvey, and notes the inclusion of past research by Harvey in the IPCC’s first report in 1990.
• In the New York Post, Departments of Chemistry and Computer Science professor and Acceleration Consortium director Alán Aspuru-Guzik describes new research that identified a potential cancer treatment with the help of artificial intelligence in 30 days.
• Department for the Study of Religion and Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies professor Naomi Seidman describes in Tablet Magazine the unique educational aspects of Bais Yaakov elementary and secondary schools for Jewish girls.

March 21, 2023

• Department of Anthropology professor Janelle Taylor writes an op-ed in The Province asking about what happens to older adults without close family when they develop dementia.
• On BNN Bloomberg, Department of Political Science and School of the Environment professor Jessica Green says the primary obstacle in slowing carbon pollution is politics, not technology.
• John Scott-Railton comments in an Associated Press story on the willingness of supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump to engage in violent protest in the event of his arrest.

March 22, 2023

• Department of Political Science assistant professor Olga Chyzh writes an op-ed in The Guardian analyzing Chinese president Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Moscow to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
• Dmytro Yefremov, a visiting professor from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy to the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School, who focuses on Chinese foreign policy, writes an op-ed in the Kyiv Independent explaining how China’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine reveals wider strategic aims.
• Matti Siemiatycki, a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning and director of the Infrastructure Institute at the School of Cities, stresses on CBC News the need for intentional infrastructure planning to support accelerating population growth in Canada.
• Department of Anthropology professor and Archaeology Centre director Edward Swenson comments in Nerdbot on newly found murals of two-faced men at the 1,400-year-old archaeological site of Pañamarca in Peru.

March 23, 2023

• Ninaatig Staats Pangowish, an assistant professor at the Centre for Indigenous Studies, and graduate student Sara McDowell describe on CBC Radio’s The Current the growing number of non-Indigenous students studying Indigenous languages in Canada.
• Randall Hansen, a professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Global Migration Lab at the Munk School, comments in BBC News on immigration’s contribution to Canada’s growing population.